As announced yesterday the server is now down and won't be up until this afternoon, I'll update here when I have a better idea of how long everything is going to take.
UPDATE: 17:00 - I'm having some issues with the world files, I'll update as soon as I know more.
UPDATE: 17:50 - I'm starting the server up now, sorry it took longer than planned!
More downtime will be required tomorrow in preparation for the switch-over, it will be the same sort of time to minimise the impact.
InfoBar
Monday, 22 April 2013
Sunday, 21 April 2013
Server Downtime Tomorrow
I'm taking the server down for most of the day tomorrow, Monday daytime is always very quiet with 1-3 players most of the time so the impact should be minimal.
I will be taking it down around 8am UK time and estimate it will be back online by 4-5pm, this is to clear out a significant amount of data and test for issues relating to the hosting company switch.
If everything goes to plan this could mean that we will be switching before the 26th, so keep your fingers crossed!
I will be taking it down around 8am UK time and estimate it will be back online by 4-5pm, this is to clear out a significant amount of data and test for issues relating to the hosting company switch.
If everything goes to plan this could mean that we will be switching before the 26th, so keep your fingers crossed!
Saturday, 20 April 2013
New Hosting Company & Changes
I can confirm that hosting fees with our new hosting company are now paid up until 18th July!
I spent Thursday/Friday testing various things and getting used to the new interface, which I must say is far more flexible than our current hosting company provides and has some great features which automatically deal with day to day admin and other common issues.
Me and DigginChickin spent virtually the whole of today testing the new plugin setup and tweaking the related permissions. To give you an idea of how big the changes are we have removed 9 of the plugins in use on the current server and added in 6 new ones, 4 as direct replacements for much of the functionality of ones we removed (as well as adding some new features) and two that add some entirely new features which we have big plans for and are sure you're going to love!
I know you have a lot of questions so here are some answers to common ones:
When is the switch-over taking place?
We will be moving over to the new server on the 26th at the latest, hopefully a day or two sooner.
Why is it taking so long to switch?
We decided to use this opportunity to make some significant changes to the plugins we use which means we have to do a lot of testing to make sure we don't have serious issues when we move the world & data over, we'd hate to have to roll back the world after a day or two because of a problem we missed. It'll be worth it in the long run though!
Will we loose anything when the switch takes place?
On the day of the switch the server will go down straight after the daily backup, the world and player data from that backup will then be used for the new server, which means in theory that nothing should be lost. Alchemical bag data can be temperamental though which is why we've asked everyone to empty the bags into chests, read the last couple of posts on here for more information.
What do the plugin changes mean?
That would be telling! I can confirm that ranks and their chat colours etc will be staying the same, although new benefits for Member rank and above have been added along with some new tools for Helpers & Moderators.
One big change is that banned items will be automatically removed and notifications sent to Admins & Moderators, in some cases players may even be automatically banned, if you currently have any banned items you'll want to get rid of them before the switch over to avoid this possibility.
I'll post another update tomorrow!
I spent Thursday/Friday testing various things and getting used to the new interface, which I must say is far more flexible than our current hosting company provides and has some great features which automatically deal with day to day admin and other common issues.
Me and DigginChickin spent virtually the whole of today testing the new plugin setup and tweaking the related permissions. To give you an idea of how big the changes are we have removed 9 of the plugins in use on the current server and added in 6 new ones, 4 as direct replacements for much of the functionality of ones we removed (as well as adding some new features) and two that add some entirely new features which we have big plans for and are sure you're going to love!
I know you have a lot of questions so here are some answers to common ones:
When is the switch-over taking place?
We will be moving over to the new server on the 26th at the latest, hopefully a day or two sooner.
Why is it taking so long to switch?
We decided to use this opportunity to make some significant changes to the plugins we use which means we have to do a lot of testing to make sure we don't have serious issues when we move the world & data over, we'd hate to have to roll back the world after a day or two because of a problem we missed. It'll be worth it in the long run though!
Will we loose anything when the switch takes place?
On the day of the switch the server will go down straight after the daily backup, the world and player data from that backup will then be used for the new server, which means in theory that nothing should be lost. Alchemical bag data can be temperamental though which is why we've asked everyone to empty the bags into chests, read the last couple of posts on here for more information.
What do the plugin changes mean?
That would be telling! I can confirm that ranks and their chat colours etc will be staying the same, although new benefits for Member rank and above have been added along with some new tools for Helpers & Moderators.
One big change is that banned items will be automatically removed and notifications sent to Admins & Moderators, in some cases players may even be automatically banned, if you currently have any banned items you'll want to get rid of them before the switch over to avoid this possibility.
I'll post another update tomorrow!
Friday, 19 April 2013
Changes Next Week - Update
Promotions On Hold
I've set up all the plugins on the new server using a 'dummy' world and have started to set up groups and permissions etc, to ease the transition promotions are now on hold until the switch-over meaning that no more players will be promoted using the existing system.
We are still keeping a list though and anyone who would have been promoted this week will be immediately promoted on the new server!
Alchemical Bags
As you should know we recommend against using these for long term storage, I would strongly advise everyone to move items from alchemical bags into chests or safes for the switch-over just in case they are reset. Any items lost from alchemical bags that do reset cannot be recovered and will not be replaced.
Old Data
Their are currently over 6000 world and player data related files on the server, totalling more than 1.2 GB.
To reduce this size, clear out unneeded data and speed up the switch-over we will be purging player data over 21 days old, this will include all data of players that have not logged in 21 days as well as transmutation tablet & alchemical bag data that has not been changed within this time. I have estimated that together with the removal of other old data this will reduce the size by around 25%.
Protection Stones
On the day of the switch-over Protection stones belonging to players who have not logged in for 21 days or longer will be automatically removed and their protection area regenerated.
If you live in a region originally protected by someone who no longer plays or has not logged in for 21 days contact DiggyWig or DigginChickin as soon as possible (preferably within the next 2-3 days in case we switch early) to remove the stone so that you can place your own.
More updates to follow over the next few days!
Thursday, 18 April 2013
Changes Next Week
Next week the hosting company change will take place and as we'll have more memory with the new company we've decided to make some changes to the plugins we use, we will be asking Helpers and some Member+ players to help us test the changes on the new server before we switch over.
What you need to do before the switchover:
1) Remember you will loose all your waypoints, carefully note down the coordinates of any waypoint you don't want to lose.
2) Make a note of your 'home' coordinates, home locations will be reset as part of the plugin changes.
3) Bookmark this page! Details of the new server and any command changes will be posted on here when we switch over.
What you need to do before the switchover:
1) Remember you will loose all your waypoints, carefully note down the coordinates of any waypoint you don't want to lose.
2) Make a note of your 'home' coordinates, home locations will be reset as part of the plugin changes.
3) Bookmark this page! Details of the new server and any command changes will be posted on here when we switch over.
Monday, 15 April 2013
Update On Connection Dropouts
After running a copy of the server at home from a recent backup for a couple of days without issue I decided to take a free trial with another hosting company just to be sure.
After three days running on the trial server there has been no sign of the problem which as I'm sure you all know has been occurring at least twice daily with our current hosting company, with the symptoms of the problem (only visible to me on the console) occurring far more frequently.
Hosting fees are currently paid up until 27th April, with payment for the next quarter due on 28th April, although I was originally inclined to stick with our current hosting company as prior to the recent changes they were very stable etc it has now been more more than 2 two weeks since this problem first appeared and it feels like I am still having trouble getting them to take it seriously, I have therefore decided that I will not be renewing either the Tekkit or Events server hosting with them.
This means that on or just before 27th April both servers will be permanently moved to a new hosting company and so will both have a new IP address.
I'll post more details once I have confirmed who we will be moving to and what the new addresses will be, I will also use the message broadcast plugin to announce the new IP every 30 minutes for at least 48 hours prior to the changeover. Just to make sure I catch as many regular players as possible I will keep the old server up with a small 'dummy world' until the hosting expires, redirecting people to the new IP.
As I intend to move the world over to the new company there will be some downtime will the switchover takes place, but no player or world data should be lost.
This downtime will depend largely on my internet connection speed and I estimate around 30 minutes to download the world (which is now just over 1.2 GB), then at least 3 hours to upload it to the new server. I am hoping to reduce the upload time by uploading the world files as a single zip file and getting the new hosting company to unzip it for me. The server will also be whitelisted for at least an hour or two afterwards for testing.
I am pretty much decided on a new hosting company but will save the official announcement until nearer the time, they are slightly more expensive but have excellent reviews and many features that our present hosting company doesn't which should make the Admin work a lot easier!
They have also assured me that the server will easily support 30 player slots rather than the 26 we have now which as we have hit capacity several times recently makes the relatively small extra cost worthwhile.
Watch this space for updates!
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